Tim Boyce on Odd Nansen's Diary - June 2016

Potluck starts at 7:00, followed by presentation. Please arrive by 6:45 if you are bringing dishes so we may start on time. Email Youth Director Annemarie McCaslin at youth@norwaydc.org if you plan to bring children, so activities can be planned.

Odd Nansen's Diary

Author Timothy Boyce returns to our Lodge to continue the remarkable story of the secret diary kept by Odd Nansen’s diary.

Odd Nansen was the son of famed Norwegian explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen. In 1936 Odd Nansen helped establish Nansenhjelpen (Nansen Relief) to help Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi persecution. In 1942, he was arrested and spent the rest of the war in Nazi concentration camps — in Grini in Oslo, Veidal above the Arctic Circle, and Sachsenhausen in Germany .

Throughout this time Nansen recorded his experiences in a secret diary which was later published in Norway as Fra dag til dag. In 1949 it was published in English as From Day to Day but eventually fell out of print. Our speaker, Boyce, chanced upon mention of this diary while reading a memoir by Thomas Buergenthal, a world-renowned authority on international human rights. Buergenthal had been a child in the same concentration camp with Nansen and credits him, among others, with saving his life. This story inspired Boyce to learn more about Odd Nansen and led to his five-year crusade to have Nansen’s diary returned to print.

The dream was realized last April, when Vanderbilt University Press republished a deluxe, fully-annotated edition, edited by our speaker.

Tim would be happy to sign copies of the book. If you would like to purchase a signed copy of From Day to Day at the meeting bring cash or a check, as credit cards can not be processed. Sales tax will not be charged.

About the Speaker

Tim’s research has taken him to Norway, where he met and interviewed Odd Nansen’s son and daughter, Marit Greve and Eigil Nansen, as well as other concentration camp survivors, and he toured Polhøgda, the Nansen family home. Tim is a finance attorney in the Charlotte, NC area and member of Sons of Norway Norsk Carolina Lodge.